Several prior art systems of which I am aware have been provided for enabling financial transactions to be made in lieu of cash. In Moreno U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,355, for example, cashless transactions are made between credit cards through a special interface apparatus located at the vendor station. The cards themselves contain fund data storage capability but data input and control are provided by the interface. No exchange of funds can be made arbitrarily; because the cards have no keyboards, there must be an interface apparatus present or the cards are useless.
Haker U.S. Pat. No. 4,032,931 discloses a keyboard assembly for transferring financial data between vendors and customers. There are no cards involved and funds data transfer is made during each transaction between the point of sale and a central computer.
Riccitelli U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,122, Schatz U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,550 and Dethloff U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,156 are examples of prior art wherein credit cards containing memory devices in which an account balance and other information are stored to be accessed during funds transfer transactions. As in the Haker patent, supra, the card in each system is used in combination with an interface device located with the vendor; it is impossible to transfer funds data directly between cards without any intervening apparatus.